BABYGEAR.COM AND GROWING FAMILY ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

NEW YORK - Babygear.com, the Internet's largest baby product e-tailer, and Growing Family (formerly First Foto), the North American leader in hospital-based photography, have announced a strategic partnership for family and friends of new babies.

Growing Family WebNursery, at www.GrowingFamily.com, gives family and friends the opportunity to view a new baby's first photo, online, just hours following birth, at no charge. At the same time, the viewers can send congratulatory messages to the new family through the site.

And by early Fall, thanks to the partnership with Babygear.com, visitors to the WebNursery sites will be able to purchase and ship special gifts to the new baby, with just a few clicks of the mouse. Within the first year of operation, the partners are planning to host 12 million gift buyers at www.GrowingFamily.com, numbers that rival today's predominant online shopping and gift sites.

"This partnership allows the entire community to surround Mom and Dad and immediately share in their joy," said Dara Epstein, Vice President of Business Development at Babygear.com. "Combining our companies' strengths will transform this dynamic marketplace and provide a real convenience to the families."

Growing Family enjoys exclusive contracts with 2,600 hospitals in North America, covering 75% of births every year, and has been taking first photos of babies for more than 50 years. As part of those contracts, Growing Family provides photography and other services to parents, all through a diligent, permission-based model: parents can accept or opt-out of the services at any point.

Company executives said that the vast majority "opts in."

With the "birth" of WebNursery at www.GrowingFamily.com, baby's photos can now be posted on the web within hours following birth. Parents can elect to password-protect their baby's page so that security is maintained. At the same time, the viewers can send messages and shop online through a large selection of special gifts for new babies that are in stock and ready to be gift-wrapped and shipped. The gifts available on GrowingFamily.com are selected just for WebNursery by the executives of Growing Family and Babygear.com, the world's largest source of in-stock baby products.

"Our representatives talk to more than 3 million moms each year in hospitals around the country, and 90% say they would like their baby's picture taken. In current participating hospitals, more than half of them are now signing up for our WebNursery service, which posts baby's photos online so their family and friends can come to see and enjoy the new bundle from anywhere in the world," said Deb Arpert, Vice President E-Commerce at Growing Family. She expects about 1.5 million baby pictures to be visited